Tons happening in Upton Lane

One of the great (and loudly sung) successes of Forest Gate over recent months lurks behind the boarded up decay that was once the proud Old Spotted Dog pub, on Upton Lane.

Tucked to one side of the pub is the almost equally decrepit exterior of Clapton FC.  We have written about the club's history (here), its most iconic player (here) and the on-going power struggle between the club's apparent "owner" and its supporters (here) before.

There is much more to tell, however; hence this blog.

Formed in Hackney in 1878, Clapton FC moved to the Old Spotted Dog ground on Upton Lane in 1888 and two years later became the first British club to play in Continental Europe. Its proud history also features the facts that it has:

• Won the FA Amateur Cup five times; and

 • Won the Isthmian  - now Rymans - League (of which it was a member for 100 years) twice.

Amateur Cup winners in 1909 -
Walter Tull second from right, front row

Now playing in the Essex Senior League (eight divisions below the English Premier League), Clapton's attendances have grown rapidly since 2012, from an average of 20 to over 500 at the end of the 2014/15 season.

This article attempts to explain this remarkable turnaround in the club's fortune and provide an update on some of the more deep-seated problems it and its supporters face.

The main stand, on the half way point.
The Ultras are to be found directly opposite,
 on match days, in an enclosure made from
scaffolding poles - hence the various
Scaffold references in communications

On the pitch

Last season was one of the club's most successful in living memory. For the record:

• After having not appeared in a cup final for thirty years, Clapton FC last season appeared in two (both of which were lost)!

 • The club finished in eighth spot in the Essex Senior League, its highest position in the last decade. Apparently this was only the third time since the 1930's that it has finished in the top half of the division it has played in!

Part of a near 500 attendance, under
"The Scaffold", at a match, in April 2015

On the terraces

More and more football fans have started to attend because of the unique atmosphere created by the Clapton Ultras, the club's noisy and passionate supporters. They are part political and campaigning, and wholly football fans.

This is an engaging combination of characteristics and makes a refreshing change to the same old tedium experienced in so many higher league (including the Premier) grounds. 

This, as their attendees will know, usually features boorish, "laddish", often intimidating, offensive right-wing and personally abusive chanting and threatening behaviour towards away supporters and players. Not to mention increasingly exorbitant entrance prices.

A spotted dog wearing the
 club's strip - Up The Tons!

According to a leaflet the Ultras distributed at last week's highly successful Forest Gate Festival, they are very different and proud to proclaim themselves as:

Strongly anti-fascist and anti-discrimination, the Ultras are trying to build a club that is affordable, welcoming and family friendly, but also one that completely rejects racism, homophobia and sexism - a different experience to a lot of modern football and a chance to watch a game in a space that is safe and inclusive.

 The Clapton Ultras want more local people to come along and join again, to become a genuine centre of the local neighbourhood. Over the last season we have made many new friends through our local activities, which have included:

• organising regular food bank collections for the Refugee Migrant Project (RAMP), supporting asylum seeker and refugee families with no income.

• clearing fly-tipping from the grounds of the Old Spotted Dog public house.

 • raised funds for Newham Action on Domestic Violence.

• distributing information locally on people's immigration rights.

 • launching and supporting a successful appeal for funds for Paris - Newham's only LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Trans-sexual, Queer) youth group.

•  organised a Fans for Diversity football tournament in Mile End.

Players raise the Rainbow flag, in solidarity
 with the Ultras anti-homophobic campaigning

If you love watching football, but think you have no alternative but to pay a huge amount of money for a ticket and then to have to put up with nasty, racist, sexist, homophobic "banter", go and experience a Clapton game. The Ultras promise you, you won't regret it!

You'll even get to shake hands with the players - usually of both teams - after the game.

Behind the scenes

Despite success on the pitch, controversy and in-fighting predominate behind the scenes. As we have reported before (here) there is a severe clash of ambition and desire between the club's apparent owners and its fan-base. 

This often happens in football, when there is a gap between the unrealistic expectations of fans and the capacity of owners to subside the route to achieving them.

The story is very different in Clapton's case. At the centre of the concerns is the very valuable piece of real estate that the club occupies.

It is perhaps no co-incidence that the ground and its buildings have been allowed to decay at almost the same rate as the historic Old Spotted Dog pub next door. The pub is the oldest secular building in Newham, but is rotting away, boarded up.

Planning permission will never be given for this local, and nationally listed, treasure to be destroyed, replaced or significantly altered. But, in its current state, it is unusable and it is difficult to see how it could again become a going concern, without a major source of external funding.

It is, however, only one careless match away from destruction. The prospect that its land foot print, extensive car park and that of the Clapton FC ground would then have for housing redevelopment, in this increasingly desirable and expensive part of East London, would make a property developer salivate. A £5m profit would not seem excessive for those in control of the land.

Enough of the speculation and fantasy.  Back to the here and now.

The freehold of the Clapton FC ground rests with a property company. A 100-year lease on the ground was granted by them to the Clapton Trust Ltd in 1992.

The Trust, however, remains a separate entity to the football club, and, in any case, has subsequently changed its name to Newham Community Leisure Trust Ltd.

The public face of the Trust is its chairman, Vincent McBean, who lives in Lambeth. He has tried, unsuccessfully, to purchase the ground from the freeholders, in a personal capacity.

Trust chairman, the
controversial Vincent McBean

A former trustee was Dwayne Brooks, friend of murdered Black teenager, Stephen Lawrence. He and Stephen's mother, Doreen, have feuded for years. Brooks is currently a Liberal Democrat councillor in Lewisham, with no known connections to Newham.

Another Lewisham resident, Rashford Angus, is also a trustee, as is Newham-living Esmond Syfox.

Quite why two Lewisham and one Lambeth residents should end up running the Newham Community Leisure Trust is not clear - particularly since they have resisted all attempts by a well-organised club supporters group to become involved with it.

According to a recent Google search, the Trust is now more than nine months behind in fulfilling its obligation to file its accounts with the Charity Commission.  This kind of non-compliance is not unusual for Mr McBean, who has a long history of failing to fulfil statutory obligations. He has had companies struck off for either not filing accounts or returns and being in receipt of warning letters about his financial conduct. See here, for the full details.

Worryingly, for the fans of the club, if this negligent behaviour continues the Trust will be struck off by the Registrar of Companies and the charity by the Charity Commissioners, at which point the lease could revert to the freeholders.

Players, Ultras, Diversity and pyro -
part of the Clapton experience!

This was the situation in 2003, when Mr McBean failed to similarly comply with company regulations. It was not until 2008 having opened negotiations for a sale of the lease, that Mr McBean applied to the High Court to have the company re-instated. Even then, the charity was not re-instated until the Charity Commission were alerted by the supporters with regard to their concern over the club's security of tenure on the ground.

Another bout of non-compliance with charity and company filing obligations by Mr McBean and chums could see both being formally wound up.

Cue: end of club (or at least its 127 year association with the ground) as speculators squabble over the valuable real estate spoils.

A well organised group of supporters is determined to prevent this undignified ending of the relationship between the club and its historic ground. They have tried, in vain, to engage and negotiate with Mr McBean.
  
They have communicated with both the Charity Commission and football authorities to try to ensure that the Trust is properly managed and accountable and that the rights of spectators and supporters are recognised and upheld

It is proving an uphill struggle.

A combination of the old adage about possession being nine tenths of the law and football authorities showing the same disregard at a local level for the rights of spectators that the Premier league quite disgracefully do at a national level for their supporters, means that voices which are loud on the terraces are not being listened to by the relevant authorities.

Legal action is afoot to preserve the heritage of this proud football club, and place its future in the hands of the one big consistent about football at all levels - the supporters. We would urge all those with an interest in grass roots football, local history and community action to engage with this important local campaign (see below for details and contacts).

Spreading the word

Fortunately, the vociferous supporters are well organised and are very effective communicators, via social and other media.  They even have their own podcast - The Old Spotted Dogcast! You can find details via the many channels listed below:

For full details of supporter activities try:

Engage with the Friends of Clapton FC - see below

www.claptonfc.info
www.claptonhistory.co.uk
www.pitchero.com/claptonfc
Twitter: @Real_ClaptonFC
@ClaptonFC_Match
@andylangalis53
@LewListz

For Clapton Ultras, try:

One of the many stickers the
Ultras use to announce their presence.
  Some very far distant sightings
 have been spotted!

www.ClaptonUltras.org
ClaptonUltras@riseup.net
www.Facebook.com/ClaptonUltras
Twitter: @ClaptonUltras
ClaptonUltras.Tumblr.com

As the Ultras say: "Another kind of football is possible, and it's happening right now in Forest Gate."

Go along, join in, be entertained, have fun, become a member of Friends of Clapton FC (details through links, above) and help save a great local institution!

You will find details of Clapton's home fixtures for the remainder of the year in the Events panel, to the right of this article.

Educating Arnie: The Terminator in Forest Gate - in his own words

Arnold Schwarzenegger is one of Forest Gate's most famous adopted sons. His stay in Forest Gate was the subject of this website's first-ever, and most visited, post, see here.

Arnie was in London recently, posing with one of the city's "Boris bikes" - see photo, below. So, we thought it would be timely to give his account of his days in Forest Gate - from his autobiography: Total Recall (see footnotes for details).

Arnie, posing recently in London, on a 'Boris bike'

We pick up the story in 1966, when Arnie has just spent some time in Munich, in pursuit of his body-building career:

Three months later, I was back in London, laughing and horsing around on a living room rug with a jumble of kids. They belonged to Wag and Dianne Bennett, who owned two gyms and were at the centre of the UK bodybuilding scene. Wag had been a judge at the Mr Universe contest, and he'd invited me to stay with him and Dianne in the Forest Gate section of London (ed: in what is now the burned out house on Romford Road, opposite Emmanuel's church) for a few weeks of training. They had six kids of their own, they took me under their wing and became like parents to me.

Arnie, Dianne and Wag with some
of the Bennett children, referred to above,
 posing outside his temporary Forest Gate home

Wag had made it clear that he thought I needed a lot of work. At the top of the list was my posing routine. I knew there was a huge difference between hitting poses successfully and having a compelling routine. Poses are like snapshots, and the routine is the movie. To hypnotise and carry away an audience, you need the poses to flow. What do you do between one pose and the next? How do the hands move? How does the face look? I'd never had a chance to figure very much of this out. Wag showed me how to slow down and make it like ballet: a matter of posture, the straightness of the back, keeping the head up, not down.

This I could understand but it was harder to swallow the idea of actually posing to music. Wag would put the dramatic theme from the movie Exodus on the hi-fi and cue me to start my routine. At first I couldn't think of anything more distracting or less hip. But after a while I started to see how I could choreograph my moves and ride the melody like a wave - quiet moments for a concentrated, beautiful three-quarter back pose, flowing into a side chest pose as the music rose and then wham!, a stunning most muscular pose at the crescendo.

Dianne concentrated on filling me up with protein and improving my manners. Sometimes she must have thought I'd been raised by wolves. I didn't know the right way to handle a knife and fork or that you should help clear up after dinner. Dianne picked up where my parents Fredi Gerstl and Frau Matscher had left off. 

One of the few times she ever got mad at me was when she saw me shove my way through a crowd of fans after a competition. The thought in my head was 'I won. Now I'm going to party'. But Dianne grabbed me and said 'Arnold, you don't do that. These are people who came to see you. They spent their money and some of them travelled a long way. You can take a few minutes and give them your autograph.' That scolding changed my life. I'd never thought about the fans, only about my competitors. But from then on, I always made time for the fans.

Even the kids got in on the Educating Arnold project. There's probably no better way to learn English than to joining a lively, happy London household where nobody understands German and where you sleep on the couch and have six little siblings. They treated me like a giant new puppy and loved teaching me words.

A photo of me during that trip (see below) shows me meeting my boyhood idol, Reg Park, for the first time. He's wearing sweats, looking relaxed and tanned, and I'm wearing my posing trunks looking star struck and pale. I was in the presence of Hercules, a three-time Mr Universe, of the star whose picture I kept on my wall, of the man on whom I'd modelled my life plan. I could hardly stammer out a word. All the English I'd learned flew right out of my head.

Arnie, with his idol, Reg Par, at the Romford
 Road Bennett gym, 1966. The 'W' on his vest
 stands for 'Wag'. Courtesy Schwarzenegger archives

Reg now lived in Johannesburg, where he owns a chain of gyms, but he came back to England on business several times a year. He was friends of the Bennetts and had generously agreed to help show me the ropes. Wag and Dianne felt that the best way for me to have a good shot at the Mr Universe title was to become better known in the United Kingdom.

Bodybuilders did that in those days by getting on the exhibition circuit - promoters all over the British Isles would organise local events, and by agreeing to appear, you could make a little money and spread your name. Reg, as it happened, was on his way to an exhibition in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and offered to bring me along. Making a name for yourself in bodybuilding is a lot like politics. You go from town to town, hoping the word will spread. This grassroots approach worked, and the enthusiasm it created would eventually help me to win Mr Universe. ...

Arnie and Wag, by the recently
 removed lamp post outside the
 now dilapidated Romford Road
 house that was home
 to Schwarzenegger in 1966 

My initial success in London had reassured me that I was on the right track and that my goals were not crazy. Every time I won, I became more certain. After the 1966 Mr Universe contest, I won several more titles, including Mr Europe ... 

I knew I was already the favourite to win the 1967 Mr Universe competition.  But that didn't feel like enough. I wanted to dominate totally. ...

So, I poured my energy and attention into a training plan I'd worked out with Wag Bennett. For months I spent most of my earnings on food and vitamins and protein tablets designed to build muscle mass. ...

Arnie went on to win his second Mr Universe title in September 1967.  Forest Gate and the Bennetts slip from his story for a while, but Dianne, in particular, is back making an impact with him in 1971. After four more years of success, following his second Mr Universe title, he was passing through London. The autobiography picks up the story:

On my way through London, I called Dianne Bennett to say hello.

'Your mother has been trying to find you', she said, 'Call her. Your father is ill.' I called my mother and then went home quickly to Austria to stay with them. My father had suffered a stroke."

His father died soon afterwards, when he was back in Los Angeles.  The outline of Arnie's story from there is well-know: after the body-building came Hollywood stardom and a marriage into the Kennedy family then the governorship of California. You can read the detail in the autobiography.

Wag (centre) and Arnie in 2001

Forest Gate and the Bennetts do not get a further mention in Arnie's book, but the close contact between him and his Forest Gate mentors remained, as the photo of him and Wag, celebrating his election as Governor of California in 2001 illustrates (above).

Footnote: Total Recall - my unbelievably true life story, by Arnold Schwarzenegger, with Peter Petre, published by Simon and Schuster, 2012. Available from all good bookshops and Amazon, pb £8.99. Thanks to all concerned for being able to publish the above - and make the story available to a wider, local audience.

Forest Gate's role, in WW1 The Hammers battalion (2)

This is the second of two articles about the role played by Forest Gate residents in the "Hammers Battalion", more formally the 13th (Service) Battalion (West Ham), of the Essex Regiment - 1914 - 1918. 

Members of "the Hammers" relaxing
 on Wanstead Flats, before being
 deployed to France, in 1915

It is largely based on the excellent Up The Hammers, a well researched account of this short-lived battalion, by Elliott Taylor and Barney Alston. It is highly recommended to anyone intrigued by this post, and is available, priced £14.99 from Newham Bookshop, and the publishers, Amazon - see footnotes for details.

Highly recommended book, on
which much of this article is based

The first episode (see previous article), traces the origins and formation and then deployment of this battalion to France in 1915. It traces the battalion's early days in the battlefields, until the eve of the Battle of the Somme in July 1916. Read on ...

Early, West Ham recruitment
 poster for "The Hammers"
One of dozens of images from
 Westhampals.blogspot
 - see footnotes for details

And so, onwards to the Battle of the Somme, in which the Hammers were soon in the thick of. Its opening day, 1 July, was the costliest ever for the British army, when 18,000 men were killed and a further 42,000 injured.

The intensity of the bombardment was such that the opening barrage could be heard in Forest Gate. Harry Smith, of Henderson Road wrote to the Stratford Express describing how some of his neighbours: "feared it was an attempted invasion. I have never in all my life heard so persistent and continuous booming of guns."

The Hammers incurred some fatalities and many casualties, but fought with distinction, as the book's authors illustrate so thoroughly - as indicated in the detail, below. Lt William Busby was awarded the Military Cross for "gallantry on the night of 1/2 July" (and was soon promoted to captain, on 31 Aug). Private EM Wilding, who came from Monega Road was awarded the Military Medal.

Wilding had joined The Hammers on 8 February 1915, having previously been a tough quartermaster in the merchant marine. He was noted as having enlisted to "The Hammers", when "thoroughly drunk."

Pte E M Wilding of Monega Road
, awarded the Military Medal.
 A tough, former quartermaster
 in the merchant marine, who
 enlisted when "thoroughly drunk"
Thanks to Essex Regiment.

Latter in the battle - on 14 July - Private Robert Lee, from Forest Gate was killed outright by heavy shelling and was buried in what is now the Canadian Cemetery No2, outside Neuville St Vaast.

By the end of July the West Ham Battalion was fighting around Delville Wood and William Busby, who was in the thick of battle yelling encouragement to his troops, was wounded, on the 29th, by a bullet to his right knee. He struggled back to an aid post and was sent to a hospital in Rouen for 12 days, to get patched up.

On 31 July the battalion HQ took a direct hit from a shell, and the roof collapsed. Among the buried was Claremont Road resident Lt Len Holthusen, the signals officer. To quote Taylor and Alston:

Outside the men of the HQ company began frantically digging with shovels, helmets and their bare hands at the earth, sandbags, wood and corrugated iron sheeting still smoking from the impact. Frantically they released the trapped and dreadfully shocked men. Dr Holthusen was immediately in attendance and found that his younger brother Len, as well as Major Churchill, were both so seriously injured that they required immediate evacuation. ... for Len Holthusen, the Hammers snooker champion at the Alexandra mess, back in Stratford High Street (this was the Alexandra Temperance Hotel; the officers' mess during the war, now the Discover Children's Centre), the war was over. Evacuated to England, his initial recovery took seven months. Even then, he never truly returned to full health and the engineering surveyor of Forest Gate reluctantly left the army, a broken man.

In an appendix to their book, the authors note: 

Len Holthusen, who had been badly smashed up when the HQ dugout was hit during action at Delville Wood, still suffered with his wounds after the war. He had sought recuperation in Westcliffe On Sea, but sadly died aged 34, at the Milbank Military Hospital in November 1920. Alan Holthusen had also moved to Westcliffe to be near his brother, living there until his death, aged 65 in 1950.

Dr Alan Holthusen (left), at his
 first aid tent, conspicuously
 not in uniform. Thanks to Alston
Collection.

The bombardment of the Hammers Battalion was so severe at the Somme, that to quote Taylor and Alston, they:

Suffered heavily in their tour with two hundred and twenty nine men gone, including nine of the officers. ... Twenty of them were literally sent mad by shell shock. A terrible price, especially when it is remembered that they had not initially been in the front of the attack.

Although it is invidious to pick out the names of some rather than of others who fell, their number included Private Hubert Ayres, who lived in South Esk Road, with his wife Alice and together ran a small coffee shop and Private Joseph Sait of Katherine St, Forest Gate, one of the original 300 volunteers to the Hammers Battalion, who was awarded the Military Medal, posthumously.

By August enough of the officers had been wounded that untried juniors, like 2/Lt Bernard Page (see previous post) were having additional responsibilities thrust upon them. Others like the recently commissioned Arnold Hone, a 21 year old shipping clerk of 176 Romford Road Forest Gate were thrown into the fray.

Quirk of fate: 176 Romford Road. Site  of
Arnold Hone's home, 100 years ago. Fifty
years later it was the site of the  Rolling
 Stones "pissing in public"  conviction,
 and today, an old folks home

19 year old Bernard Page lead his company in an attack in the early hours of 9 August, and they were mown down by combatant fire, and their bullet-riddled remains left on the battlefield.

In the morning, as daylight rose, stretcher bearers searched No Man's Land for the fallen, some were found, and buried, others not. Taylor and Alston record, with stark simplicity, the terrible impact of his death and events subsequent to it. In a paragraph they describe the horror of war:

The stretcher bearers weren't able to get to Bernard Page. The body of William Busby's great friend and billiard partner was never found. A West Ham lad, through and through, his proud father Robert was devastated when he received the telegram from the War Office. In common with so many families, his grief did not end there. Bernard's older brother, Wilfred, was also killed in action, in March 1918. Today 'BRP' is another commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing.

Meanwhile, the recently commissioned 2/Lt Hone returned from the night's carnage "exhausted, dehydrated and wounded". So lengthy was the death and casualty list, that his circumstances barely received a line in the official account of the night's events.

Other Forest Gate-related deaths recorded at the Somme, according to the book's authors, included those of Cpl Frederick Hunt, who was one of the enthusiastic volunteers when the battalion was established in March 1915, whose body was never recovered, following an intelligence gathering mission on 4 September. 

56 Cramner Road - today,
 then Frederick Hunt's home,
 killed in action in 1917,
 but remembered on the Thiepval
 Memorial to the Missing

He was a 31 year old clerk from 56 Cranmer Road, and his name joins that of Bernard Page on the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing.

Thiepval Memorial to the Missing,
 remembering, among others, Bernard
 Page and Frederick Hunt, from Forest Gate

On 26/27 October Field Road resident Sgt Harold Joseph Morrison was on patrol in No Man's Land reconnoitring German wire, when he was caught in German fire, he was badly hit and bled to death. He is buried in Sucerie Military Cemetery.

The young-looking, 21 year-old 2/Lt Arnold Hone was soon to distinguish himself in the field. He lead his men in a daring and brave mission on 13 November, at the Battle of Ancre, showing great tactical awareness, leadership and bravery, for which he was to receive the Military Cross. The result of the action was that The Hammers took a German 'minor' trench, thanks largely to Arnold Hone's "splendid example", as a cool head under fire.

"Baby faced" 2nd Lt Arnold Hone,
 in a photo taken after the war.
 Photo courtesy of Michael Holden

 But, as Taylor and Alston note, this minor "victory" came at a heavy cost:

The losses had been horrendous, nearly half of those involved had become casualties. .. no less than ten (officers) were immediately listed as missing ... The huge numbers of wounded filling the trenches ... who had been pouring back for two days bore witness to the withering nature of the machine gun fire and vicious hand to hand fighting. 

In addition to the officers, 165 "other ranks" were posted as missing, of which only seven were ever located. The "butcher's bill" paid by the Hammers in the Battle of Ancre was truly awful.

Two of the officers who were killed at Ancre were 2/Lt George Manners Gemmell, a 27 year old insurance clerk from 10 Hampton Road, who after a chance meeting with some members of the Hammers, had applied to become an officer with the battalion in 1916. Although killed in the field, brave comrades were able to drag his body back to British lines, for a dignified burial.

10 Hampton Road, today. Then
 home to 2/Lt George Manners Gemmell,
an insurance clerk, who was
 killed in action, in 1916

Captain William Busby also perished on this night, leading his platoon into action. He was hit in the head by bits of a German shell, a small 'whizz-bang'. His dying words, according to Silvertown boy Pte J Clark were "Goodbye my lads, I hope you will get through, alright". His comrades were able to drag his body back, through the mud, to give him a proper burial.

Lt William Walter Busby. Photo
 courtesy of Newham Scouts

On hearing the news, the boys of the West Ham Scouts immediately renamed themselves Busby Troop (which still, today, meets in Durning Hall), and changed their neckerchiefs to khaki, in his memory.

His Company Sergeant Major wrote to his father, describing him as "An ideal officer". He is buried, besides George Gemmell at Serre Road No 2, the largest cemetery in the Somme.

Serre Road No 2 Cemetery - the largest
 of very many war cemeteries in the Somme
 area. Last resting place of Lt William
 Walter Busby and 2nd Lt George Gemmell,
 both of Forest Gate

The battalion was devastated by the losses they suffered at Ancre, but continued to serve, being moved up and down the line in the Somme. Deaths and causalities continued to be endured. Unfortunately the battalion diaries soon afterwards stopped publishing the names and ranks of the fallen, probably because there were so many and it was so ghastly a task - so it is difficult to be precise about which local men suffered, where - from now, in The Hammers Battalion.

Deaths and casualties mounted on the front line, however, until an operation in the village of Oppy on 28 April 1917 saw 125 of them killed. There were precious few of the original volunteers left, and the battalion's numbers were often replenished by men with little association with the area - because the unit numbers needed to be kept up to fighting strength and levels.

There was little respite. Within six months the battalion was embroiled in the Third Battle of Ypres - better known as Passchendaele. Further casualties followed and army re-organistions took place, to rationalise military units. In January 1918 the battalion was disbanded, with the remaining soldiers redeployed to other units, with thanks from Field Marshall Douglas(Later Earl)  Haig, for "fine work, consistently done".

The war ended on 11 November, that year. Forest Gate, like every other suburb, town, village and city in the UK, and beyond, paid a heavy price in blood, for what turned out to be a pyrrhic victory, in an inconclusive war.

Footnotes

1. Thanks to Elliott Taylor and Barney Alston, whose dedication resulted in the publication of Up The Hammers - The West Ham Battalion in The Great War - 1914 - 1918, available at Newham Bookshop, and from the publishers, Amazon for £14.99. See here, for details. The book is available from Amazon, world-wide and has 60 never-before-published photos of the Hammers, a small number of which, as indicated, have been reproduced above.

2. Elliott maintains an up-to-date blog on matters relating to the battalion, which is well worth a visit, via hyperlink:this. Elliott is always seeking out new relatives of soldiers from the Battalion, and will be happy to share your details of them (if you wish) with visitors to the site, and his further researches with you.

3. Other WW1-related articles on this blog are:

Black war hero and football pioneer, Walter Tull 
Tragic end to World War 1 romance (1) 
Tragic end to World War 1 romance (2) 
Becoming rapidly forgotten 3/8/2014
Centenary of anti-German riots in Forest Gate

4. As Elliott reminded us, Walter Tull (see link above) was a member of the Footballers Battalion during the First World War. They fought side by side with The Hammers Battalion, throughout its existence, in the 6th Brigade of the British army.

Fire! Fire! Fire!, in Forest Gate

Our recent feature on the shops and traders of Woodgrange Road at the turn of the last century (see here and here), has provoked a flurry of local interest in the fate of the Forest Gate fire sub-station. So, we dug around a little and owe considerable gratitude to local historian and fire service expert, Peter Williams, for what follows.

Peter is doubling up his contribution to this blog with a small display at CoffeE7, showing how things looked from their cafe window in 1900 - with the fire service in mind. So, pop along, have a coffee, and catch up on local heritage!

We've trawled through the excellent Newham Story website (see here), local photographs, maps, trade directories and Peter's detailed knowledge of the Fire Service, and put the following together.

The first record we can trace of a fire service presence in Forest Gate is in the 1890 Kelly's Street Directory, which simply states that there was a "Fire Engine Station" on Woodgrange Road.

This mention is confirmed by the 1893 Ordnance Survey Map (see below, for extract), which shows a "Fire Station" at the junction of Woodgrange and Sebert Roads - where it appears to be adjacent to a public toilet.

1893 Ordnance Survey Map detail,
 showing Fire Station at junction
 of Woodgrange and Sebert Roads.

The 1900-01 Kelly's Directory - used for the 'Woodgrange Road in 1900' blogs - confirms the location, as being in front of what is now the dentist, with the confusing "Market Place" carving on the (sadly neglected) building, at the Woodgrange/Sebert Road junction.

An early 20th century postcard (see below) shows a small wooden hut with a tall ladder in front of what is now the dentist. The detailed enlargement, immediately below this,  clearly shows what was then known as a "Street escape station" - effectively a local sub-station for the West Ham Fire Brigade. The borough service was then based adjacent to Stratford Old Town Hall, the outline of which can still be seen today.

Postcard of junction of Woodgrange
 and Sebert Roads c1900

Detail of the postcard, clearly showing
 'Fire escape station' in foreground

The "Street escape station" consisted of a man and a ladder, which would be rushed off to any local fire or emergency. Below is a close-up photograph of one, from Manchester. The escape weighed about half a ton, so having received notification of a local fire to be fought, the watchman's first task would have been to recruit passers-by to assist him in dragging the appliance to the incident! This, clearly, could only provide a limited and primitive service.

Street escape station, Manchester
 - how the local Forest Gate facility
 would have looked, c 1900

There is no indication of this Fire Service location and presence in the 1902-03 Kelly's Directory.

By 1908 a more effective local fire service sub-station had been built on the corner of what was then Forest Street, and is now occupied by the Lord Lister clinic, on Woodgrange Road. (see 1920 Ordnance Survey map, below for location). n.b. there has been some change in the layout of the streets in the years since this map was made.

1920 Ordnance Survey map detail,
 showing fire station at the end of Forest Street

The photo, below, shows a team of firemen at this location - some of whom would have been part-time or voluntary or auxiliary. Their vehicle was horse-drawn. The man in the centre of the front row of this photo was Henry Dyer, who was a local undertaker and mayor in 1914-15. He featured in our blogs on the local WW1 Hammers Battalion (see here, for details). It is likely that this photo was taken in or around the outbreak of the war.

Forest Gate Fire Station c 1914,
 with 1914-15 mayor,
Henry Dyer centre front row

We have few details of the local fire service over the next decade - including during World War 1, although we know that the station managers from 1908 - 1922 included Edward Smith, W Stringer and Alfred Braddick. 

Motorisation of the fire service fleet - particularly after the war - almost certainly sounded the death knell of the Forest Gate fire service presence.

We know that the Forest Gate depot replaced its horse-drawn vehicle with a motorised one in 1920, but it was not a hitch-free process. Prior to the introduction of the motorised fire engine, the Forest Gate station operated with one horsed fire escape, two horse carts and three firemen. The annual revenue cost of the service was a little under £630.

Although a motor vehicle was introduced to Forest Gate in 1920, by 1922 its big end had broken and the service was forced to acquire 2 horses from the council's stables - presumably to draw the pre-motorised fire vehicle to local incidents. A temporary backward step in the onward march of progress!

Motorisation, however, meant that vehicles could reach Forest Gate swiftly from the main West Ham station in Stratford, and so the pressure was on to rationalise services and close the Forest Gate sub-station. It was, in any event, a fairly quiet facility; having attended only 15 incidents in 1919, seven the following year and 18 in 1921.

A two-shift system - greatly resisted by strong trade unions at the time - was being introduced in Stratford in the early '20s, which would have meant a more comprehensive service for the borough generally.

The Forest Gate sub-station was finally closed on 31 May 1923 and the premises were taken over by the electricity department of West Ham council, which generated and supplied electricity in the borough, at the time.

Forest Gate's role, in WW1 The Hammers battalion (1)

 As part of our on-going series examining Forest Gate's role in World War 1 (see footnote for links to other articles), we are running a two-part blog on Forest Gate residents' participation in the West Ham Battalion ("The Hammers") during that war. 

We are entirely indebted to the tremendous work done by authors Elliott Taylor and Barney Alston in their recently published book Up The Hammers, available from the Newham Bookshop, Barking Road, and through their publishers, Amazon - see footnotes for details.

Cover of Up The Hammers - upon
 which much of this blog is based

This, the first episode, traces the story from the establishment of the battalion in December 1914, until the outbreak of the Battle of the Somme on 1 July 1916.

Wherever possible, we have tried to track the addresses of local volunteers and added details (including some contemporary photographs) to the authors' accounts, from censuses etc. We cannot recommend their book highly enough to anyone touched by the events described within these articles, as it gives a much lengthier and fuller account of an important part of West Ham's history.


Following outbreak of WW1 a number of "Pals" Battalions were formed, groups of mates, who joined up together in localities, throughout Britain. The West Ham Battalion was one of them, and established on 29 Dec 1914. Forest Gate skating rink, Woodgrange Road, was temporarily secured as a drill hall. The battalion was given the name "The Hammers" and 120 men were recruited within a fortnight.

Skating rink on Woodgrange Road -
where the rail air shaft is today
 - used as a drill hall for "The Hammers"

An early volunteer was William Walter Busby of 14 Sherrard Road. He was 24, worked as a chemical analyst and was studying for a BSc. He had been a member of the Officer Training Corps, as a student, and was a founding member of the 2nd West Ham Scouts, eventually to become the borough's district commissioner (see here for details). 

He and his family were well established members of Sebert Road Congregationalist church.  Members of his family continued their association with the church and authored its official history in the 1950's. 

The Hammers Battalion book's authors have been fortunate in obtaining fairly detailed diaries of William Busby's movements, at home and abroad during World War 1, and we are grateful to them for being able to quote so extensively from these, in what gives a full picture of both the man, himself, his friends and the conditions they and his comrades endured during the war.

Lt William Walter Busby. Photo
- courtesy of Newham Scouts

14 Sherrard Road today
 - Busby's home then

Battalion recruits were housed on hastily constructed wooden huts in the grounds of the 'Old House' in Wanstead Park, which today is part of the golf club. 

By the end of February they had over 1,000 volunteers and two weeks later they held a recruiting parade and march, around St James' church, Forest Gate, which lead to another influx of local recruits. 

St James church, Forest Lane,
 now demolished, then hosted
 a recruiting parade

Local venues provided entertainment to the volunteers. The staff at the Queens cinema on Romford Road, according to the authors, opened their doors and 850 of the filed in to watch the latest films.

Queen's Cinema, Romford Road,
 bombed in WW2, in 1915 offered 850 soldiers
 free film shows, now flats and shops,
 next to Barclays Bank

Among the Forest Gate volunteers were friends of William Busby - who was soon elevated to become 2nd Lieutenant - like 17-year old Bernard Page and Leonard Holthusen. Page's father, Robert Henry, was proprietor of a successful chain of florists throughout the area (including 2 Woodgrange Road - see here for further details), and lived at 143 Earlham Grove.

143 Earlham Grove today,
 then home to Bernard Page,
 and his father, the florist,
 Robert

Advert for Page, the Florists, of
 Woodgrange Road. Proprietor
 Robert was  the father of
Hammers' recruit Bernard

Twenty nine year old Leonard Holthusen was an engineering surveyor, living at 102 Claremont Road. He became the battalion's first signals officer. His older brother, Alan, of the same address, was a local GP, with a surgery a few doors from the Sebert Road Congregational church. He was quickly appointed the battalion's first medical officer. Their father, also of Claremont Road, was an "ornamental confectioner and Christmas cracker manufacturer".

102 Hampton Road today, then
 the home of Hammers' signals officer
 Leonard Holthusen, medical officer, 
Dr Alan,  and their father, an
 "ornamental confectioner"

On 23 March 1915 1,300 of the battalion mustered on Wanstead Flats and were inspected by Major General CL Woollcombe of Eastern Command. 

A month later a route march was undertaken, after some physical drill on the Flats. The journey took them to Manor Park, via High Street North, to Barking.
They then marched along Green Street, past West Ham's Boleyn ground and back to Wanstead Flats (via Stratford).

Some of the 1,300 Hammers
 mustering on Wanstead Flats in 1915

The following month there were anti-German riots in Forest Gate (see previous blog), and one magistrate commented in court that: "A West Ham Juvenile Battalion of thieves should be raised", owing to the number of children that defendants claimed had been responsible for the looting.

"The Hammers" paraded beneath their home-made colours on Wanstead Flats for the last time on 16 May 1915. Many turned out to hear the service from the Bishop of Barking and a lesson by the Mayor, Henry Dyer - who, ironically, as time was to tell -  had a very successful undertakers' business at 54 Woodgrange Road (see here).

The battalion left the district for the last time on 19 May, and the Stratford Express reported: "They appeared more like a joyous crowd of excursionists than that of a battalion of fighting men with such stern work ahead of them".

"The Hammers" parading along, The Grove,
 Stratford, spring 1915. Photo courtesy
 of Newham Archives

They were seen off by Henry Dyer, who was honorary Colonel of the West Ham Battalion. They marched to Brentwood, for further training. In mid July they were sent to Mansfield, for additional preparation, then to Salisbury Plain.

On 17 November they were on their way to France. One of the officers in the advanced party and responsible for the onward transport and accommodation arrangements was Lt Gilbert Simpson, of Osborne Road. He would appear to have been a 23 year old civil servant, previously of 3 Knighton Road, Forest Gate.

3 Knighton Road, today
 - previously home to
Lt Gilbert Simpson

"The Hammers" were, formally, the 13th Battalion of the Essex Regiment, and once in France they became part of the 2nd Division of the 6th Brigade of the British Army.

On arriving in France, the battalion made its way, by train, to St Omer then on to Bethune, on foot, where they were billeted in an old tobacco factory.

Reality of life in and around the trenches soon hit - cold, over-run by vermin, sleepless nights, constant artillery bombardment, boredom.

A truce, of sorts, provided some relief over Christmas, although that day's dinner didn't live up to hopes. William Busby noted in his diary that it: "was not altogether a success ... the cooks were drunk", on the rum meant for the soldiers!  

Len Holthusen was able to provide some relief, when he brought news that West Ham had massacred Arsenal at the Boleyn Ground, 8-2, on Christmas Day, with Syd Puddefoot banging in five.

Using surviving official battalion diaries, Taylor and Alston are able to describe the movements of "The Hammers" and the suffering inflicted on them in quite a detailed way. So, the diaries and authors are able to tell us that casualties were relatively light during their first couple of months in France, until 20 January 1916, when they suffered a heavy bombardment at the front, which included the wounding, in a barrage of artillery, of Walter Charman, a 39 year old carman (barrow trader), with previous experience in the Boer War. 

Walter who had enlisted in April 1915, recovered after his injury, survived and returned home to his wife, Ethel and their five children at 78 St James Road, off Forest Lane.

78 St James Road today -
then home to Walter Charman

The Hammers Battalion was on the move in mid-February, a little further down the trenches, and on the 16th Arthur Ley Davies was "accidentally shot by a comrade". He lived at 105 Dames Road, with his parents and had enlisted in Stratford in January 1915 - as one of the first 300 volunteers to the Hammers Brigade. 

He was badly wounded, as a result of the shooting, and was shipped home, to recover slowly. Fifteen months later, however, he was to die at sea, while still in military service.

105 Dames Road, today - then
home to Arthur Ley Davies
"accidentally shot by a comrade"
Died, in uniform, at sea in 1916

The following day, Pte Frank Cowell, a 34 year old "enamel writer and glass divider" of 68 Gwendoline Avenue, Upton Park was carefully sandbagging his bit of trench, when he was spotted and shot in the stomach, by a German sniper. Dragged down the trench, he was quickly given morphine by Busby and was evacuated to the casualty clearing station at Bethune, but died two days later.

Later that day Private Alfred Sekles, at 35 one of the oldest volunteers in the battalion, originally from Forest Gate, but by now married and living in Church Road, Manor Park, was hit. He was still breathing when he was taken to the same clearing station, but died of his wounds a week later. He is buried in the Bethune Town Cemetery.

The battalion was soon on the move again, to the area around Verdun, marching in appalling weather, to relieve French troops and face the Germans at Vimy Ridge.

Towards the end of April William Busby was granted some very welcome home leave, and his diary recalls the experience. Arriving home at Sherrard Road, in the early hours, according to his diaries and Taylor and Alston, he woke the family and: "showed souvenirs and then to bed". 

Popular souvenirs would have been bits of captured German uniforms and equipment, like the distinctive spiked helmet, belts, buckles, bayonets and sometimes handguns or grenades.

Back in England, he spent time with some of his former West Ham scout colleagues and caught up with the families of comrades in arms - such as that of Sgt Clark of Kilchurn Road, Forest Gate. He also met with the family of his old billiards opponent, Bernard Page. These were the florists, of Forest Gate and elsewhere, 

He was invited to supper by Bernard's father, then "BRP's younger brother", took him on a drive "through Chigwell, via Abridge to Theydon, then on to Loughton and Chingford, before arriving home for tea".

His final day was spent at home with his father, before, on Friday 5 May: "Packed up things and left home. Train to L'pool St, taxi to Victoria. Just caught train. No seat in Pullman.", where on his return to the front line, he was to encounter the consequences of gas attacks and the further killings of comrades in the trenches.

Alan Holthusen, local
 GP and medical officer
to Hammers Battalion,
 in unconventional dress
 - see text, below. Photo
 courtesy of Essex Regiment.

On 1 June the battalion came under sustained attack, where trenches were badly damaged. Taylor and Alston describe the role of Claremont Road doctor, Alan Holthusen, at this time:

Alan Holthusen, the medical officer, was working feverishly in very confined and extremely dangerous conditions. Since joining, Dr Holthusen had refused to wear his service tunic, opting instead to wear his tweed jacket, which had served him so well at his GP's surgery. He also wore a battered trilby for his time at the front until the initial introduction of steel 'shrapnel' helmets ... Altogether that night, Holthusen personally treated over ninety casualties from three different regiments, including those Hammers ... who were brought in by fearless stretcher bearers like Norman Bellinger. Unable to evacuate them because of the intensity of the shelling, Holthusen and his orderlies took on the status of an advanced dressing station (ADS). They finally managed to move the wounded to the rear by motor lorry between 6 am and 11 am.

The second and concluding article about the role Forest Gate soldiers played in the "Hammers Battalion" will appear next week. It starts with the Battle of the Somme and tells the story of the battalion's remaining months, and disbandment, due to loss of members, in 1918.

Footnotes

1. Thanks to Elliott Taylor and Barney Alston, whose dedication resulted in the publication of Up The Hammers - The West Ham Battalion in The Great War - 1914 - 1918, available at Newham Bookshop, and from the publishers, Amazon for £14.99. See here, for details. The book is available from Amazon, world-wide and has 60 never-before-published photos of the Hammers, a small number of which, as indicated have been reproduced above.

2. Elliott maintains an up-to-date blog on matters relating to the battalion, which is well worth a visit, via hyperlink:this. Elliott is always seeking out new relatives of soldiers from the Battalion, and will be happy to share your details of them (if you wish) and his further researches with you.

3. Other WW1-related articles on this blog are:

Black war hero and football pioneer, Walter Tull 
Tragic end to World War 1 romance (1) 
Tragic end to World War 1 romance (2) 
Becoming rapidly forgotten 3/8/2014
Centenary of anti-German riots in Forest Gate

4. As Elliott reminded us, Walter Tull (see link above) was a member of the Footballers Battalion during the First World War. They fought side by side with The Hammers Battalion, throughout its existence, in the 6th Brigade of the British army.